Thank you for standing with us.
I am passionate about saving lives and making the world a better place. I know you are too – that’s why you gave so generously and helped us to achieve so much in 2021.
Almost one million people benefited from our work last year, with our incredible staff clearing or safely returning to communities some 85 square kilometres of land – an area about the size of Brighton and Hove.
We also helped to make the lives of thousands of people safer by destroying nearly three million items of surplus and obsolete ammunition.
As we move forward into 2022, we remain as determined as ever. We will continue to deliver on our promise to remove landmines and unexploded bombs across the world and to help communities affected by conflict.
I hope you enjoy reading through some of the inspiring stories from 2021 and seeing the results of your kind donations.
This generosity enables our deminers, people like Amsha, to continue their life-saving work.
And it gives children like Emmanuel access to our vital risk education classes.
This is not just MAG’s impact. This is your impact.
Thank you for standing with us and with all those in the world whose lives are afflicted by war and armed violence.
Darren Cormack
MAG Chief Executive
Amsha is a Yazidi deminer working with MAG in Sinjar, northern Iraq.
Yazidis are a minority religious group — they and thousands of other Iraqis suffered at the hands of ISIS, who planted hundreds of thousands of deadly landmines and other devices.
Now that ISIS have left, Amsha is determined to rebuild her life and her community. Her courage and resilience, and that of her community, is astonishing.
Amsha’s story has been captured in a BBC Our World documentary called The Yazidi Women: Clearing Sinjar’s Mines. Click here to watch it for yourself.
“ISIS planted IEDs so that people will die. My job is to remove them, so they don’t succeed. I am doing this job for my land and my people.”
Amsha, MAG Deminer in Sinjar, Northern Iraq
Emmanuel Joseph was out herding his goats when he found something on the ground. It was roundish and metallic, and Emmanuel knew just what to do.
Emmanuel, who is 12 years old, lives in the village of Rokon, South Sudan. We have been working in South Sudan for several years, clearing mines and delivering life-saving lessons.
Emmanuel had attended these lessons, so when he found a bomb, he knew what to do: when he saw a MAG vehicle, he flagged it down to tell the crew about the explosive he had found.
Deminers came and safely removed the item. Risk education is a vital part of our approach to keeping people safe. It gives people the life-saving knowledge they need to keep themselves safe.
Your support means that Emmanuel is free to get back to playing with his brother Ali, age 10, doing well in maths and hanging out with his favourite goat, Mugga.
Sana had heard reports of contamination by landmines in the region of Lebanon where her new house was located, but she thought they were exaggerated.
Then one day, as she was planting a pine tree in her garden, she found an anti-tank mine.
“When I saw it, I had a panic attack and was in great fear!”
Sana reported the anti-tank mine to her local MAG Community Liaison Team, and we began clearance work on her land in June 2021. In the course of clearing her garden and land, deminers found and destroyed an incredible 915 explosive devices.
“Every MAG deminer is my saviour! MAG found a landmine where I used to stand to water my trees. Even my grandchildren used to play there. I can’t find words to thank these kind people.”
Sana,Lebanon
